The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Panasonic Corporation have released the 2018 World Heritage calendar. Featuring stunning photographs of World Heritage sites from around the world, this popular calendar can be used in paper, online and tablet app versions.
UNESCO and Panasonic have been creating wall calendars since 1995 and a web version since 2010. The wall calendar includes brief ...

The World Rowing Federation, FISA, is the first global sports body to pledge a commitment to protecting World Heritage sites.
The commitment has developed out of World Rowing’s Clean Water partnership with WWF International and is part of WWF’s global campaign to strengthen the protection of natural World Heritage sites.
World Rowing recognizes that large sporting events can have a negative ...

The World Heritage Centre currently receives numerous messages from civil society concerning the state of conservation of the World Heritage property Pirin National Park. The competent authorities of the Republic of Bulgaria as well as the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Body IUCN are fully informed of the concerns raised.
At its 40th session in 2016, the World Heritage Committee ...

On 21 and 22 January 2018, European Ministers of Culture met in Davos, Switzerland, to adopt a Declaration promoting the concept of a high-quality Baukultur in Europe. This step forward is congratulated by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, particularly as urban heritage on the World Heritage List exceeds 40% of the total sites.
The adoption of the Declaration, which specifies guidelines for ...

In an effort to improve tourism management at World Heritage sites, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre convened an expert meeting on the development of a new and innovative tool for tourism and visitor management.
Experts participating in the meeting hosted at the UNESCO HQ in Paris 15-16 January 2018 included representatives from UNESCO, the Advisory Bodies (IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM), site ...

In a historic decision for marine conservation efforts, the Government of Belize has adopted a full oil moratorium for all Belize offshore waters, including the entire Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage site. The Belize reef system is the second largest reef system in the world, with approximately 200,000 Belizeans dependent on the reef for their livelihood.
“The World ...

In addition to its generous annual contributions under the Programme Cooperation Agreement (2014-2017), the Government of Sweden decided in November 2017 to provide additional financial support to UNESCO in the amount of SEK 3,200,000 (around USD 400,000) to strengthen the protection of heritage, as well as to promote independent, free and pluralistic media.
The contribution will ...

The ‘Delhi Declaration on Heritage and Democracy’ was adopted at the closing session of the ICOMOS 19th General Assembly in New Delhi, India, on 15th December 2017, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium-Auditorium in New Delhi, India. The Delhi Declaration emphasized the understanding that people's perspective is central to heritage, and the General Assembly declared that ethical principles have to ...

The first meeting of the World Heritage Policy Compendium Working Group took place at UNESCO Headquarters from 6 to 7 December 2017. The Policy Compendium initiative, which will see the development of a consolidated source of World Heritage policies for use by the World Heritage Committee, States Parties and other stakeholders, is being implemented through financial support received from the ...

An inter-regional workshop entitled “World Heritage and Sustainable Development: the Role of Local Communities” was organized at the National Museum in Karachi, Pakistan (23-24 November 2017) by the World Heritage Centre in close co-operation with the UNESCO office in Islamabad and the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Sindh Province, Pakistan.
The Workshop, opened by the ...

Culture, in all of its wondrous expressions, inspires more than 1.2 billion tourists to pack a bag and cross international borders each year. It is an important means to promote inter-cultural dialogue, create employment opportunities, curb rural migration, and nurture a sense of pride among host communities. Yet unmanaged, it can also harm the very heritage cultural tourism relies ...

The triennial meeting of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), taking place in New Delhi, India from 11-15 December 2017, began with the Scientific Council Meeting on 11 December in the India International Centre, New Delhi. The Opening Ceremony of the ICOMOS General Assembly was held on 12 December 2017 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium-Auditorium in New Delhi.
The ...

International Mountain Day, designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2003 and celebrated on 11 December, highlights the importance of mountains to life on Earth. The theme for 2017, “Mountains under Pressure: climate, hunger, migration”, draws our attention to some of the most critical challenges that mountains and people living in mountain areas are currently facing. It also ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is participating in the Annual Meeting of the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes in New Delhi, India, on 7–8 December 2017, ahead of the 19th ICOMOS General Assembly (11–15 December 2017).
Organized by the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes ICOMOS-IFLA (ISCCL) and ICOMOS India, this two-day ISCCL Annual Meeting ...

The first joint STAB/ICOMOS Advisory Mission to a World Heritage property was carried out within the framework of the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
The World Heritage property "Ancient City of Nessebar" (Bulgaria) hosted an Advisory Mission invited by the Bulgarian authorities and carried out jointly by experts of the ...

Five years ago, on 5 December 2012, the World Heritage State of Conservation Information System was publicly launched. This database offers a trove of reliable information on the state of conservation of natural and cultural World Heritage properties since 1979 and the threats they have faced in the past, or are currently facing.
The State of Conservation Information System currently ...

On 5 December 2017, the World Heritage Centre, Europe and North-America Unit organized a meeting on Heritage and Environmental Impact Assessment (HIA/EIA) at UNESCO Headquarters, with the support of the French Ministry of Ecology. It was a follow up to Decision 39 COM 7.11 on HIA and EIAs adopted by the World Heritage Committee at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015) and to the side events organized ...

At the request of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, meeting at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris from 29 to 30 November 2017, granted “enhanced protection” status to Angkor, a cultural World Heritage site. Enhanced protection is a mechanism established by the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the ...

Mechtild Rössler, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, welcomes the initiative by the Government of Mexico to create a vast ocean reserve spanning 150,000 sq km around the Revillagigedo islands, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016.
The establishment of the reserve follows the request of the World Heritage Committee when inscribing the Archipiélago de Revillagigedo on ...